Welcome to the third roundup of useful and inspiring resources and links. This time the theme is recharging your creative batteries, connecting with the creative community and learning new things.

It’s still summer, but we’re reaching the back to school part. I still can’t help but think of this time as a perfect time for learning something new, connecting with people and starting new projects. Refreshed and rested from the summer.

CREATIVE COURSES

Sister Diane of CraftyPod offers a range of e-books and courses for creative entrepreneurs and has got such a talent for making the technical side of running a creative business, simple and easy to understand. I’ve just signed up for Diane’s new e-course Write, Publish, & Sell Your Crafty E-book. Seeing as I finally got the printer to work, I need to plant the seeds for a new long-term dream!

Author Stephanella Walsh created The Creative Identity eCourse as an offshoot of the live workshops she’s run in Manchester since the beginning of the year. “The online version is an expanded study of the eight constituents of our writing identity. During the course we shall investigate the products and the reasons of our creative endeavours while paying close attention to our fears. I have devised The Creative Identity Map as the starting point of the exploration, with pit-stops at Creative DNA, Creative Yearning and Creative Loss amongst others. The course will include Q&A sessions, podcasts, movie clips, live chat and lots of reading and writing. It begins on 19 September, join us now!”

Get started making beautiful mixed media art projects for your home using salt, sand, paint and charcoal with 4 Mixed Media Art Techniques from Cloth Paper Scissors. Free e-book with amazing paper craft techniques to inspire you to make creative gift tags, postcards and other mixed media art. Both for beginners and veterans.

Includes: “Who Can Resist Magic”,  ”Fusion-Dyed Collage”, “Mixed Media Watercolor Technique” and “Textured Backgrounds for Collage”.

Beginner Drawing Lessons (the first part of three). Written with kids in mind, but perfect for adults, too.

“This series is the result of many sketching sessions with my girls, during which I realized there are a few recurring concepts that I am always reminding them of. For these lessons, I have reduced lots of information into three basic ideas that can be utilized when drawing: Line, Value and Color.” By Amy at Elemental.

CREATIVE PROJECT

The Sketchbook Project – “it’s like a concert tour but with sketchbooks. Anyone – from anywhere in the world – can be a part of the project. To participate and have us send you a sketchbook that will go on tour, start by choosing a theme.”

(A big thank you to Wini who blogs beautifully at art love joy, for the suggestion!)

CONNECTING WITH THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY

If you’re looking for a space to connect with other creatives, sharing the downs and celebrating the ups of your creative life, check out Celebrating Each Step on our Creative Path. Every first Sunday of the month. By Concetta at Glittering Shards.

Did you miss the first roundups of Resources For Creative Entrepreneurs?

• Here’s part one: Resources for Creative Entrepreneurs
• Part two: Resources for Creative Entrepreneurs. About Easy Blogging, Digital Downsizing and Inspiration for Life.

Have you got any useful reads or resources or inspiring projects around being a creative entrepreneur that you’d like to share?

Tags: community, connecting, courses, creativity, fresh start, how-to, inspiration, resources, tutorials

Here’s a second roundup of useful and inspiring resources and links.

It’s a mixed bag. Ideas for easy blogging. Thoughts on digital downsizing and social media as well as some beautiful and thoughtful inspiration for life.

EASY SUMMERTIME BLOGGING

• Take the 7 Link Challenge Today. The idea is to create a “sneeze page” that helps visitors to find the highlights of your blog, even as they drop off the front page of your blog. It’s an easy and fun challenge, and of course you can be creative and modify the questions if you like. From ProBlogger.
• Take a break from the pressures and expectations of regular blogging and let your photos do the all the talking for the month of August. The August Break is hosted by talented and lovely photographer & writer Susannah Conway.
• Blogging In a New Light: Simple Blogging. Turn your day into a poetic, enchanting poem accompanied by a photo. By mixed media artist Susan Tuttle.

TIME TO TAKE A BREAK FROM SOCIAL MEDIA?

• Time for a Digital Sabbatical? By Gwen Bell who owns a yoga studio, is writing a book about digital intimacy and is one of 2010′s Most Influential Women in Tech.
• Have you ever felt like you were spending too much time on social networking? Here’s a great read: Breaking Up the Social Networking Way. By paper aficionado Jen who creates delightful things made of paper and blogs at Simply Said.
• Social Media Has Damaged My Attention Span. An interesting article by jewelry designer and blogger Brandi who lives her life inspired by colour. Find Brandi’s jewelry at Catie’s Blue and her blog at Brandi Girl.
• Input vs. Creativity (Or, Thoughts on Surfing the Web) an interesting read by the ever resourceful, helpful, talented and friendly Sister Diane of CraftyPod.

INSPIRATION FOR LIFE

• Here are three thought-provoking articles for people who want to live life on their own terms by self development guru cowboy, Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind: Write Your Own Permission Slip, The Three Ways to Deal With Difficult Emotions and How to Overcome Limiting Beliefs.
• Finally, don’t miss writer and crafter Megs’ inspirational manifesto Live Like a Handful of Smarties. From Made By Megs.

Did you miss the first roundup of Resources for Creative Entrepreneurs?

Have you got any good reads about blogging, social media and digital downsizing that you’d like to share?

Tags: blogging, how-to, inspiration, resources, social media, tutorials

Here’s a roundup of art, design, craft and business related articles, resources and links that I find particularly useful.

For those of you who are interested in a peek behind the scenes of a creative entrepreneur and to support and inspire those of you who run your own creative indie biz.

• Growing your business beyond Etsy. Tons of good stuff here! From pricing and marketing to growing your creative business by creating multiple revenue streams. From Crafting an MBA – business thinking for designers and makers.
• In an Abundant World, Scarcity is Opportunity. Another superb read from Crafting an MBA – business thinking for designers and makers.
• Your creative business blog & its sidebar. Is your sidebar like a sock drawer? Here’s how to get your blog’s sidebar to support your creative business. From Tara Gentile.
• Working it out, an action plan for taking your ideas and dreams to the next level from Susannah Conway.
• Why You’re Undervaluing Yourself (And How to Stop) – the title says it all – from Productive Flourishing.
• Finally, I just set up a shop for my art and icons with Big Cartel. Here’s my review of Big Cartel.

Have you got any good reads about being a creative entrepreneur that you’d like to share?

Tags: blogging, business, e-commerce, entrepreneur, independent, indie, resources, review, shop, shopping cart

My new online store

I recently set up a new store for my art and icons at Big Cartel. In just a couple of hours, I’d set up my shop, customised it and launched it. The same day I was making my first sales!

Big Cartel is a simple and beautiful shopping cart for independent artists, designers, crafters, writers, jewelers and musicians. It offers an easy-to-use e-commerce solution that gives users a way to create a small shop and sell their products through their own domain or a unique URL within the Big Cartel site. You can easily customize your Big Cartel store to fit your web site and brand.

FEATURES:

• Quick and easy to set up and maintain
• Easy to customize to fit your brand by changing the colours and graphics in the themes, or by using custom code and your own URL to match your site
• A permanently free plan for up to five products (!)
• Keep track of your inventory and automatically mark products as “Sold Out” when they’re gone
• Coming soon: sell digital, downloadable products online, such as e-books, music, video, art, photography and software through Big Cartel’s equally beautiful and easy-to-use sister service Pulley
• You can turn on maintenance mode while you tinker with your store
• Friendly and fast support
• Customers can pay with a credit card or a PayPal account
• View your dashboard to get an instant overview of how your online store is doing
• You can reward loyal customers by creating discount codes to give them a percentage off their purchase

LIMITATIONS:

• There’s a limit of 100 products
• No affiliate programme

COSTS:

Big Cartel doesn’t take a percentage of your sales, instead there are three monthly plans. There’s a completely free plan as well as monthly paid plans with expanded features. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel your account at any time. For example, you could test the waters with the free plan, and upgrade when your hobby turns into a profession or simply when you feel ready for it. All you need to get started is a PayPal Business or Premier account. Here’s how you sign up for a PayPal account and here are the current PayPal fees.

THOUGHTS:

Big Cartel is such a simple and beautiful e-commerce solution that I feel I can spend my time making art and icons instead of pouring my time into fiddling with web stuff which can be so time consuming for a one person creative indie business like mine. Big Cartel is an online shopping cart system that makes it easy to sell in style.

Tags: business, e-commerce, ease, entrepreneur, independent, indie, productivity, resources, review, shop, shopping cart, simplicity